The Delhi High Court on Sunday announced that it will only take up “extremely urgent matters” from April 19 onwards, in view of the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in the Capital.
The order issued by High Court’s Registrar General Manoj Jain said that other pending routine or non-urgent matters and those cases filed or listed before the court between March 22, 2020 and December 31, 2020, shall not be taken up for now and would be adjourned.
“In case of any extreme urgency, the request in the pending matters may be made on the already notified designated link,” the office order said. “Keeping in view the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in the NCT of Delhi, it has been ordered that all the Benches of this court shall with effect from April 19, 2021, take up extremely urgent matters filed in the year 2021 only,” it added.
On April 8, the court had decided that it will take up proceedings through virtual mode from April 9 to April 23.
After the imposition of the first nationwide lockdown, the High Court had started conducting hearings through videoconferencing from March 24 last year to contain the spread of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Over five months later, the High Court resumed physical hearing of courts proceedings initially with five of its Benches on a rotation basis from September 1. The number of benches conducting physical hearing was increased gradually.
The court had commenced complete physical functioning from March 15 onwards.
Apart from full physical hearing, the High Court also considers request of parties to join the court proceedings through videoconferencing. This hybrid form of hearing is one, where some of the parties or their counsels may be physically present in the courtroom when the matter is taken up by the court for hearing, while others may participate through the online mode.
